Tuesday, December 17, 2013

As I wrote yesterdays post I was very tempted to get off track to point out the way that the view from the door has changed. If you've been reading since our move, you will remember that the entrance into the living room used to be a little low, and it blocked the light. So we took it down. And that was the last time you saw it. Well, we have finally finished it up, so it's time for an 'after'!

That one little change has really opened things up in here! I love that the view from one door (where I was standing as I took the picture) goes all the way to the other door. It goes a long way towards making our little place feel more spacious.

Monday, December 16, 2013

Hey, wanna see what our little place looks like all Christmasy? I'm going to pretend that was a yes. Here we go...

Come on in! This is the 'front' door. I say 'front' because really it is the back door, but it is the only one we use. I used the garlands we had bought last year, as well a few new ones that we picked up for less than $5 a pop. For the window swags I cut branches from our huge spruce trees in the backyard. They needed to be limbed up a little anyway, so we reused for some pretty decorations!

Going through the door into the mudroom, you run into our first tree.

It's not a real tree, and its decorated with paper snowflakes and fake snow. Not going to be featured in a magazine anytime soon...but we like it! Oh and the cardinal is not a decoration. He snuck in one morning and fluttered around for a while. I opened all of the doors and windows and then he left! From the mudroom you go through one more door...

Moving into the house, you enter the kitchen, which isn't decorated at all. I know...sorry! Ahem...moving on. The living room/dining room got the brunt of the Christmas decorating, from our long shelf on this side of the room....

...to our tree over on this side!

Oh and I have to direct your attention to the centerpiece on our table. I'm pretty sure it's the cutest thing I've done for the past few weeks.

I found this tiny tree coming up next to our garage. He is adorable so I gave him tiny wooden lights. It had to be done. Aside from that the only place I have really put any decorations is in our room...

And that was kind of only because I had one leftover garland and that little "JOY" bunting. The boys do have a tree in their room, a tiny little guy with lights, but that's it. I would love to hang some twinkly lights in there but they are still at the point that I don't trust them with cords.

So there it is. Our little place at Christmas! Nothing crazy - but still festive and fun for us!

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Let take a look at the dining area of our house. Here is how it started...

...and here it is the last time you saw it. I think. I mean...for all I know I may have sneaked a few updated pictures in since then. This is after removing the carpet, replacing the floors, tearing down the paneling, skimcoating the entire room, and painting. Not to mention refinishing the table, and making our little curtains - which I never actually addressed on the blog because I am still not 100% sure on them, and in the interest of full disclosure they are held up with Velcro. No joke.

Now...what I had strategically cropped out of the above picture was a monstrous ceiling fan. I'm just not a ceiling fan person, not in my home anyway. I know...people love them, I KNOW. I just...am not one of those people. PLUS - it hung pretty low and Matt would hit his head on it almost every meal.

Ideally, I would have loved to reuse the beautiful chandelier we had bought at our last rental (you better believe we took it with us) but it is just WAY too big for our little place. I mostly just wanted a simple drum pendant over the table, and then I stumbled across this baby at Lowes. On Clearance, naturally. I pretty much only buy lighting on clearance. I've never paid more than $40 for a light...it goes against my moral code.

I brought it home, switched off my electricity, and got to removing the old fan. Man..those suckers don't play around. Eventually - I got the old fan down, and as an added bonus, I taught my two year old to say 'damnit'. Mom of the Year.

After that it was a simple install of the new light...who is a little more fancy than I am used to...but she is growing on me. Currently we just have it swagged over to center it above the table, I would really prefer to move the light over there - but all things in time! At least Matt doesn't knock his head on it anymore!

Oh and look! That is where our tree is, in case you were wondering. Our walls are still pretty bare - all things in time! I'm waiting for inspiration to strike.

How about one more before & progress...I feel like it's been a while since I posted one..

Monday, December 9, 2013

Back in the early days of this blog (I'm talking pre-kids here people) I used to do a post on Mondays that summed up our weekend...in pictures. I know, it was hard to figure that out from the title of this post. I'm tricky like that.

So this weekend...it was our annual trek to Alexandria for the Scottish Christmas Walk. I love this tradition, we've gone every year but one for the last six years, and that was only because Jack was a wee little three week old baby and there was a snow storm.

It was pretty darn cold this year, but the sun was shining and the parade was a great time!

Sunday came even colder with a forecast of snow and ice. Luckily we mostly got the snow part of the forecast here.

To say the boys were excited would be a serious understatement. They couldn't wait to suit up and head out into the snow.

We threw snowballs and ate snow until we couldn't feel our toes, and then we came inside and had the Nerf battle to end all Nerf battles. The boys and I versus Dadddy. It was pretty incredible.

As I tucked Jack into bed last night after his third trip to the bathroom, he hugged my neck and said "Mommy, I loved shooting Daddy tonight."

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

That's right...it's Christmas tree time again. If you have been reading for a few years, you know that a tradition in our family is to go get our Christmas tree on my birthday each year. You will also know that generally this does not go as planned. I am happy to report that THIS year - we only got lost one time, and we didn't get in any fender benders at all.

It was a Christmas Miracle! I'll let the pictures do that talking...

Now let me tell you a little something about pictures. They only tell you part of the story. By this point, both of the boys were exhausted, crying in the car, and I was outside taking pictures because I knew I would lose my temper if I had to sit in the car with them for another stinkin' minute. Oh and in a 'mother of the year' moment I forgot that I was holding a saw and scratched Jack's finger - just a tiny scratch but from the screaming you would have though I amputated at the elbow. It was...you know...life. So if by chance you are looking at these pictures thinking that your outings never go that smoothly...never fear! Neither do ours!

BUT ANWAY - we got our tree home, regrouped, and set that bad boy up! Oh and we had to cut off both the top and the bottom because we always get one that is too big. It's a tradition.

And then? Then we flopped on the sofa, ate candy canes, and watched Charlie Brown's Christmas.